


Certainly

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds, Spencer Reid - Fandom
Genre: Car Accidents, Custody Arrangements, Gen, Wakes & Funerals
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 18:30:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,024
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12086859
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	Certainly

As Spencer ran into the emergency room, his heart pounded inside his chest. This couldn’t possibly be happening. He was living in a nightmare with no ability to wake up. Emily had called him from the car, tears garbling her speech as she told him that JJ and Will had been in a head-on car collision on the way home from a date. “What?” He screamed, jumping out of bed and pulling on his clothes as he stumbled out of the door, still talking to Emily. “What happened? Are they okay? Emily, are they going to be okay? Please! Tell me they’re going to be okay!”

His voice caught in his throat as he sped toward the hospital, not caring that a cop came up behind him; he ignored him until he got to the hospital and the officer called after him. “Look, arrest me later,” Spencer said as he ran inside. “I can’t be bothered right now.”

Once he found Emily and the rest of the team, he took in their defeated faces and knew - he just knew. “No,” he breathed, his eyes spilling over with tears as he crumpled like a piece of paper onto the floor. “What happened?” How could this be real?

“Drunk driver,” Luke said flatly, not making eye contact with anyone as he stared down the hallway toward the operating room where he’d watched them both flatline. “Hit them head on. They both made it here, but…”

Nothing else needed to or could be said. The defeated members of the BAU sat motionless in the middle of the hospital. From the silence, Garcia choked out a sob and fell to Spencer’s side on the floor, and he joined her, his cries echoing throughout the extensive emergency room, which somehow, right now, seemed so small. 

—-

“Jennifer and Will?” The surgeon asked, calling for loved ones. 

As they looked up, nearly all were overtaken again in a wave of emotions as they took in the sight of him covered in blood, some dried and caked to his scrubs, some new and still dripping downward. Spencer was the first to stand up; he was numb and autopilot was taking over. “Yes?”

“I am truly sorry for your loss,” he said. Surgeons had to lose people on the table all the time, but by the look on his face, the BAU could tell that this hit him differently than any other. “I did all that I could, but there was nothing I could do. The bleeding was too extensive. Again…I’m so sorry.”

Tara punched the seat as she stood up and walked toward the opposite end of the room. Garcia openly sobbed again, after feeling like there were no more tears left. Luke, Rossi and Stephen couldn’t move. And Emily, who had stood for the surgeon, sank back into her seat. Although they all knew, they’d been secretly hoping that this was all a big mistake and that JJ and Will would emerge from somewhere safe, unscathed and smiling. But they were gone. That’s when it hit Spencer. “Oh my god,” he said, his hand coming up to cover his mouth.

“What is it?” Emily asked.

Spencer’s heart dropped. “How are we supposed to tell Henry and Michael? What happens to them?”

—-

While Emily, Luke, Tara, Rossi and Stephen filled out every piece of paper imaginable for the release of JJ and Will into their custody, Spencer and Garcia took it upon themselves, as Henry and Michael’s godparents, to tell the two young boys what happened.

Before walking up to their apartment, where the nanny was currently with them, Spencer threw up outside. “How are we supposed to do this?” He asked Garcia. “They’re so little.”

Garcia grabbed his hand and they steadied themselves before walking in. The nanny collapsed into tears. The boys were asleep, so Spencer and Garcia had a moment to control themselves before they arrived. “Uncle Spencer? Aunt Penelope?” Henry asked sleepily. “What are you doing here?”

The next few moments went by in a blur. Michael, at barely two, wasn’t old enough to comprehend what either of his godparents were saying, but Henry was a different story. “Was it a case?” He sniffled.

“No,” Spencer replied, hating himself for being the messenger. “It was a drunk driver. He hit your Mommy and Daddy and they were hurt too badly for the doctors to do anything. I’m so sorry, Henry.”

Spencer’s heart ripped open at Henry’s cries. The last time he’d heard him cry was as a toddler when he wanted a toy he couldn’t have. Hearing him cry like this, knowing there was nothing he could do to make it stop, made Spencer freeze in place, his arms grasping ever tighter around his godson’s body. “I’m so, so sorry, Henry.” 

As he picked up Henry, and Garcia held Michael, Spencer stared into nothingness. He knew where he was. He knew what had happened. But truly, nothing felt real.

—-

In the following days, Henry said nothing to anyone - anyone except Michael. He kept telling him Mommy and Daddy were gone but that he would never be alone because Henry would never leave him. While Emily and Rossi took care of the funeral arrangements, Spencer and Garcia took care of Henry and Michael. 

When the day of the funeral came, Henry never left Spencer’s side and Michael hung onto Garcia as if his life depended on it. The previous days had ripped all tears from their eyes; they were too tired to summon anymore, and instead stared blankly at their caskets as they were lowered into the ground. Henry blew them a kiss and said bye-bye before looking up at his Uncle. “Where do Michael and I go now?” He asked. “All of our grandparents are gone.” Even JJ’s mother had passed recently from a random heart attack. The boys didn’t have any blood relatives left.

“I don’t know,” Spencer said honestly. “But I promise I’m not going to let anything bad happen to you.”

—-

Despite their young age, JJ and Will’s line of work taught them that nothing was a given, so they’d written out a will and updated it regularly. “The entirety of our estate is to be split equally between our sons, Henry and Michael LaMontagne,” the man read blankly from the paper. Rossi wanted to scream; this man was reading these words as if this wasn’t the most unfair thing in the world. “In the case of either one of our passing, the remaining parent will maintain custody of both of our children. However, in the event that both of us shall die in the same incident, custody of Henry and Michael LaMontagne will be transferred to their godfather, Spencer Walter Reid, effective immediately.”

Spencer’s head snapped up from the floor. After JJ’s mother had died, she asked if he would take care of the boys in the event that anything happened to them, but honestly he’d forgotten until this moment. “Does that mean we go home with you, Uncle Spencer?”

Life was different now. He had different priorities, and he had a lot to think about, but he wouldn’t let JJ down; Henry and Michael would always remember them as long as he was alive. He swallowed hard as he turned to his oldest godson. “Yes, Henry. You and Michael come home with me now.”

Later that night, when the boys were safe and sound in his apartment, he had a sobbing breakdown, tears staining the sheets and sticking to his skin. One of his best friends was gone and he was responsible for his godsons. 

—-

The next day, he did what he never thought he’d do, but then again, he never imagined a life in which is best friend was gone and he was thrust into immediate parenthood. Emily expected it. 

“I knew that’s what you’d do,” she said, reluctantly accepting his letter of resignation. “All of us are here to help with the boys whenever you need. I hope you know that.”

Spencer’s lip quivered as he realized how much he’d miss being at work every day, but with both parents gone, they needed to have some kind of consistency, and he’d been offered various teaching positions throughout his career, so he took George Washington University up their offer. It would allow him to teach classes in the morning, so that he could be home for the boys after school. “I know. They deserve to have someone home with them. After all this, it doesn’t seem fair for me to leave them with the nanny while I come here. I’m always on call if you need me from home though.”

Emily came out from behind her desk and wrapped her arms around her friend. “I’m sure we’ll be calling you, and I promise, I know that a lot is changing right now, but you will never lose any of us.”

If there was one thing Spencer could be sure of in this moment, it was the love of his team. This wasn’t going to be easy, but they would get through it because of that love.

—-

Three years later…

“Henry, it’s time to get up!” Spencer screamed from the living room. After gaining official custody of the boys, he bought a small house just a few minutes outside of town, about halfway between the Bureau and the University. As he spun around, hands covered in peanut butter from making lunch for the boys, he smiled softly at the picture of JJ and Will on the mantelpiece. There were pictures all around the house. Michael was already up and eating breakfast, but Henry, approaching his pre-teens at 12 years old, was getting harder to wake up in the mornings. “Henry! You have to go to school!”

Inside, he heard Henry kicking up and down on the bed. “I don’t wanna!”

“Michael, you stay here while I go check on your brother.” The five-year-old kicked happily at the table, eating his cereal without a care in the world. Unlike his brother, he’d been shielded from a lot of what happened with his parents. “Henry, what’s wrong?”

Henry pulled the covers over his head and whined. “I didn’t sleep well. I kept dreaming about Mom and Dad.”

Spencer’s heart dropped. Quickly, he checked through his phone. He could get away with taking the day off, and the boys had had near perfect attendance over the past three years. “How about you, me and your brother take a mental health day and stay home? I’ll let you sleep a little longer, and then we can go to the zoo or something today.”

“Can we get ice cream too?” He asked. He was getting older, but in these moments his voice still sounded so small. 

Spencer huffed. “Of course. What would a day off be without ice cream?” He kissed Henry on the forehead and then left him to sleep a little longer, returning to the kitchen where Michael was finished with his breakfast. “Michael, how would you like to take the day off from school today and go to the zoo with your brother and me?”

“Can we!?” He asked excitedly. 

“Just for today,” Spencer replied.

Michael clapped happily as Spencer called both boys in sick, but then he started to yawn. “Are you getting sleepy?” Spencer asked.

“Yes,” he said. “I thought about Mommy and Daddy last night and then I got sad and I couldn’t get to sleep.”

Picking him up off the floor, he hugged him tight. “How about I tell you a story and then we take a nap for a while before we go to the zoo?”

“Okay,” Michael yawned, leaning into his Uncle’s shoulder as he sat back down on the couch. “Once, there was a lovely and beautiful Queen named Jennifer and an equally brave and righteous King named William. Together, they had two princes named Henry and Michael, and as a family, they ruled the land justly and happily…”

Within minutes, the house was once again asleep under the watchful eyes of JJ and Will - they may have been gone, but they would certainly never be forgotten.


End file.
